Approaches to Learming of Postgraduate Healthcare Professionals in an Outcomes Based Curriculum
Joyce, Pauline
(2010)
Approaches to Learming of Postgraduate Healthcare Professionals in an Outcomes Based Curriculum.
Doctor of Education thesis, Dublin City University.
This thesis has explored the approaches to learning of postgraduate students from
the healthcare profession. Their experiences are placed within the perspectives of
their lecturers and external examiner for the programme. I employ a
phenomenological approach, through the lens of fourth generation evaluation, to
gather student’ experiences as insider stakeholders. Previous research relevant to
this topic has tended to focus on exploring deep and surface approaches to
learning using phenomenography or psychometric inventories, from the students’
perspectives. Research on conceptions of teaching has been carried out
separately. It is not clear from the studies reviewed what type of curriculum was
in use. Moreover, despite evidence suggesting that learning approaches are
complex and vary across disciplines and cultures, this line of research has tended
to portray learning as a single phenomenon which can be understood in isolation
from the contextual influences of the teachers and the curriculum itself.
Prior to in-depth interviews with students I analyse the curriculum as
documentary evidence and interview lecturers and the external examiner to
contextualise the student experiences. This pluralistic evaluation allows the
relationship of experiences to be understood in the context of external influences.
I draw on Barnett and Coate’s domains - knowing (learning as knowledge),
acting (learning as doing) and self (learning as personal and professional
development), as the conceptual framework, to understand and communicate
findings from all stakeholders. The main engagement of students in learning is in
the domain of acting, with a focus on application to practice and alignment of the
learning outcomes. However, there are variances in emphasis within all domains
from the stakeholders.
The findings suggest a need to restructure the curriculum model of the
programme to better represent the dynamic nature of an engaged and living
curriculum for postgraduate students with different learning agendas. A
curriculum model is proposed which captures the current external influences of
alignment within an outcomes-based curriculum and the characteristics and
diversity of a postgraduate student group. Suggested internal influences include
signature pedagogies and peer learning. Central to the model is a spiral of
learning needs which link with domains of learning during the lifetime of the
programme. These include challenges and supports (domain of self), evidencebase
and mastery (domain of knowing), communications and application to
practice (domain of acting). The study highlights the impact of outcomes-based
education on learners at postgraduate level in higher education. It provides
recognition to the importance of exploring approaches to learning from a
pluralistic stance.